


Disproportionate Response

by von_gelmini



Series: Prompt Fics [7]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Dark Tony Stark, Hurt Peter Parker, M/M, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-01-31 18:20:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21450640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/von_gelmini/pseuds/von_gelmini
Summary: Anonymous said to starkerstories:for the prompts how about starker when one of them gets injured in a battle the other goes absolutely crazy taking down the bad guys leading the other avengers who maybe disapproved of the relationship realising they shouldn't try to split them lest they turn darkside
Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Series: Prompt Fics [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1537483
Comments: 21
Kudos: 365





	Disproportionate Response

“Tony, Peter needs you,” Nat said, trying to reason with him.

“Peter is unconscious,” Tony said, tapping the nanite device and surrounding himself with his suit. “What Peter needs is a doctor.”

“Not a good idea,” she said, putting a hand on his arm.

“Give me a better one,” he spat.

She couldn’t think of one. The only thing was that if Tony did what she knew he was going to, Peter would be upset once he found out. Maybe he wouldn’t have to find out. If he did, well the kid could certainly put two and two together if he knew his lover at all. A certain amount of forgiveness had to go there.

It didn’t take long for the kidnappers to figure out they’d made a grave mistake. It wasn’t just Spider-Man they’d captured. When they pulled off the mask, they saw that Spider-Man was Peter Parker, Tony Stark’s boyfriend and current darling of tabloid gossip. Spider-Man the pest of a crimefighter was one thing. Iron Man’s boyfriend? Quite another. They dumped Peter’s body in a field. Then they split up and headed as far away as they could get.

It wasn’t far enough.

“Tony stop,” Rhodey landed next to his friend as Tony was holding up one of the kidnappers by the throat.

“Why?” He squeezed harder and the man kicked.

“You don’t want to do this.”

“Pretty sure I do.”

“You don’t need to do this. Peter’s okay. ”

“Why would I’d listen to you about anything regarding Peter. You made your opinion about us perfectly clear.”

“Look man, this isn’t something Iron Man does, okay?”

“What? Kill people? Do you have any idea how many people I’ve killed? Or do you think that the missiles in my armor just bruise them a lot before they pretend-blow up?”

“Revenge, Tones. Not a road you should go down.”

“Uh huh. So why do you think I attacked in Gulmira? I just picked a random Middle Eastern town to blow up? Revenge has been in my purview since day one. For far less of a reason than this asshole’s given me. Isn’t that right, asshole?”

The asshole tried to argue around Tony’s gloved fist on his throat.

“Why don’t you fly the fuck home and leave me and Peter alone. If it weren’t for you and the rest of the Avengers’ damn interference, I wouldn’t have been distracted last night.” He looked at the guy in his grasp. “Stop struggling. I don’t want to kill you by mistake. I want to kill you very much on purpose.” He turned back to Rhodey. “But Cap had to call one of his damn meetings. About ‘fraternization’ between Avengers. Everyone knew it wasn’t Bruce and Nat he was talking about but me and Peter.”

He finally turned back to the kidnapper, put his other hand on the man’s head and twisted his two hands in opposite directions, snapping his neck.

“One down two to go.” Tony blasted off. “Don’t try to follow me Rhodes. Go have another ‘meeting’.”

Goon number two was found heading west on the interstate. His car suddenly left the pavement, flown upwards, held by nanite claws sunk into the roof. The vehicle was gently put down in a wooded area.    


“Asshole number two. Pleased to meet you,” Tony said, yanking the man out of the car. “I got interrupted with your friend, so he got off easier. They already sent my best friend to argue with me and he failed. I should be able to take my time with you.”

“I’m sorry Mr. Stark. We didn’t know!”

“You just knew he was Spider-Man, right? Like you think that’s any better? That you can attack one of the Avengers and get away with it?”

“We didn’t know he was an Avenger!”

Tony shrugged. “So you’re just stupid.”

“Yeah!”

“You broke one of his ribs and punctured a lung.” Tony punched the guy on his side with the full force of his suit behind it. “Oops. Kinda broke a little more than a rib, huh? Then there was the matter of the head wound.” He tapped the guy on the head. “Damn. Sorry about the cracked skull there.” He grabbed the guy’s throat. “I don’t even know what all you did to leave him unconscious. He’s pretty unbreakable, but you managed it.” He put the half-dead guy in his car, buckled him in and fused the buckle short before blasting the gas tank. He walked away to leave what was left of him to burn to death.

“Tony!” Cap’s voice came over the coms. “Rhodes just got back. You need to stop this.”

“And you need to stop meddling. I doubt you’re going to do that any more than I’m gonna stop killing number three.”

“Tony, I don’t know who you are right now.”

“That’s the problem, Cap. You thought I was someone who’d let you lie to me. You thought I was someone who’d ‘listen to reason’ about the person I’m in love with. You have never known who I am. Give me one difference between what I’m doing and what you did for him? Get back to me with whatever lie you come up with to tell yourself. I’m busy.” Tony watched the tracker on his heads up display ping closer to where number three was hiding. “FRIDAY, disable communications on Avengers com link.”

Torture didn’t interest Tony. He thought it might, but attacking number two simply bored him. Death was efficient. He waited until number three left the diner before he dropped down and picked him up. There was something satisfying about watching him fall from a couple thousand feet up to leave nothing but a small crater and a greasy spot in the parking lot. In all three events, Iron Man was never seen. One of these days he’d have to thank that kid from Tennessee for his suggestion about those retro-reflective panels.

“Tony,” Peter smiled softly from the hospital bed.

“Hey baby.” Tony leaned down and gave him a light kiss. “Feeling better?”

“You know. Nothing hurts me.”

“I know, Peter. Nothing gets to hurt you. But Dr. Cho says you still need rest to finish healing.”

“She worries too much.”

“Baby, I worry more, okay?” He brushed the hair back from Peter’s forehead and kissed him on the pink line where the cut was still healing. “Sleep. You heal faster that way. I’m not going anywhere but right outside your room.”

There was an accusatory panel waiting for him. Only Nat held herself apart from the group.

“Problem?” Tony asked angrily.

“Yes, there’s a problem,” Cap said. “What you did…” 

“From you? I might’ve listened to it from Clint, from Bruce, from anyone else, but  _ you _ ?” 

“What I did was for a friend.”

“What I did was for my lover! What I did was kill three very bad guys for a very good reason. I have yet to hear a good argument as to why killing these three is any worse than killing the dozens I’ve killed in battle.”

“They weren’t fighting,” Cap argued.

“Really? You call kidnapping Peter, breaking the unbreakable kid, not fighting? They got between me and Peter. Anyone getting in between me and Peter is fighting me, do you get that? Do you get that?”

Tony went and sat by Peter’s bed, holding his hand.

“I wish you hadn’t done that,” Peter said quietly.

“I know. I appreciate that you don’t kill. But I do. For far less reason than they gave me. You’ve got to know that.”

Peter nodded. “In theory, yeah. I’m just not used to it being because of me.”

“It wasn’t because of you, baby. It was because of them. They weren’t the first kidnappers I’ve had to kill to effect a rescue.”

“I was already rescued. It was revenge.”

“An argument could be made that it prevented further kidnappings of someone else.”

“You know that’s not why you did it.  _ I _ know that’s not why you did it.”

Tony sighed. “They hurt you, Peter.”

“I heal.”

“It’s still not okay to hurt you.”

“Don’t do it again,” Peter said, rubbing his thumb across the back of Tony’s hand.

“Peter, I’m not gonna lie to you. Was I more pissed than usual? Yeah. FRIDAY has Karen report to her when you’re on patrol. If there’s a problem, she tells me. She couldn’t tell me last night because I was in a damn meeting. That meant I fucked up and couldn’t track you until it was too late. So my choices were to attack some bad guys or show Cap what I fight like when I’m not pulling my punches. But even so, I can’t promise that if someone hurts you I’m not going to hurt them back.”

Peter frowned trying to parse what Tony had just said. “Cap?”

“Yeah. One of his special meetings. About Avengers fraternizing with each other. Which was never a problem until it was you and I. So instead of listening to FRIDAY at her first ping, I didn’t hear when your tracker went away from New York. I didn’t hear when your suit registered your unconsciousness. I was too busy listening to the Avengers intervention about what a perverted dirty old man I am.”

Peter laughed so hard he had to hold his still healing ribs. “But you are a perverted dirty old man. You ate me out.”

Tony laughed. “If you think that’s perverted kid…”

He went and lowered the blinds between Peter’s room and the lobby where they busybody Avengers were still discussing his and Peter’s fate, as if they had anything to say about it. He went back to Peter’s bedside and sat quietly with him, hoping he’d rest.

“I told you this was not going to go well,” Nat said. 

“He’s more than twice Peter’s age. You gotta admit it’s a little sketchy,” Clint said.

Nat shrugged. “Like Tony hasn’t dated twenty year old women?”

“But this is Peter we’re talking about,” Steve argued.

“Who’s a grown man able to make his own decisions. The fact that you still see the fifteen year old kid that stole your shield is your problem. He’s twenty.”

“Yeah but Tony?” Bruce asked.

“It’s not the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I guess somebody’s gotta be the kid’s first heartbreak,” Bruce said with resignation.

“C’mon, Clint, you see it, right? Or am I the only person here with eyes?” Nat asked.

“It’s kinda hard not to see a kid who’s not much older than mine. I’d have a fit if my kid came home with Tony Stark. At any age.”

“Did you miss that he just threatened all of us?” Steve asked.

“Did you miss where you told him to break up with the person he’s in love with?”

Steve scoffed. “He doesn’t know the meaning of the word.”

“Rhodes?” Nat asked.

“I’ve never seen Tony that bad. He only gets that way… Yeah. He’s in love with the kid. He gets… obsessed.”

“That’s not good for Peter,” Steve argued.

“Peter doesn’t seem to mind,” Nat said. “It’s his decision. You’re not going to have me on this.”

“It’s weird. I’m not crazy about it. If it were my kid, I’d ground him for life even if he was twenty. But Peter’s not my kid. Not my decision to make,” Clint said.

“I still think you’re all wrong on this. Tony isn’t good for anyone, much less one of the Avengers. He’s ripped the team apart for less,” Steve said. “He knows how I feel. I tried appealing to his morality, but he has none. I feel bad for Peter when he discovers what Tony’s actually like.”

“You’ve just seen what Tony’s like,” Rhodey explained. “He’s not going to tolerate anyone coming between him and what’s his. I’m not going to be on the receiving end of that ever again.” A few eyebrows raised, but Rhodey refused to elaborate further.

Cap, being the lone dissenting voice, shook his head and walked away. Tony being Tony was something he should be used to by now.

Peter didn’t get any sleep. He might be unbreakable, but internal injuries still were painful as they healed. But it was nice just lying there holding Tony’s hand while they did.

“Wait,” he said, turning over to face Tony. Sometimes it took him awhile to make it through the info dump that was Tony’s way of deflecting when he was talking. “I thought I was off Baby Monitor Protocol.You spy on me through Karen?”

“I don’t spy on you through Karen. The girls gossip. FRIDAY knows that I want to know when you’re in real danger. She’s capable of knowing the difference between your standard-level patrol danger and something that needs my help. That’s when she alerts me. Only then.”

“The girls  _ gossip _ ?”

Tony chuckled. “All the freakin’ time. Every time I get close to writing a subroutine to find out what they’re saying, she changes the damn access. She is SO much sneakier than JARVIS ever was.”

“And Karen?”

“FRIDAY’s a bad influence. Maybe I made her a little too much like me.”

“Oh god Tony. Okay… I can’t get you to promise never to kill anyone for me. How about… proportional response?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not dead. I wasn’t dead when you found me. So killing those guys… disproportionate response.”

Tony thought about it a moment. “Okay. I can work with that. So baby, you better hope nobody ever kills you.” Tony leaned over and kissed Peter’s forehead, then whispered in his ear, “Cos I’ll burn the whole fuckin’ world down.”

Peter believed him. And it didn’t frighten him like it should. 

**Author's Note:**

> My Starker blog on tumblr is [starker-stories](https://starker-stories.tumblr.com/).  
Come on by and visit.


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